Thursday, January 22, 2009

State Department Staff: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

Harper's Magazine talked with some of the people at the State Department, and, well, let's just say that the obvious happiness visible everywhere at her going away party wasn't faked:

There are great hopes for Hillary at State. I met last week with a number of career State Department employees and was surprised when one said she was looking forward to the “Glinda Party” next week. I asked her: if Hillary was Glinda, the Good Witch of the South from the Wizard of Oz, did that make Condoleezza Rice the Wicked Witch of the West?

“You’re on to it,” she said.

Well, gosh, if they didn't like her, they should have moved to a different department. I hear there's no place like Homeland Security.

Toss of the combable mane to Pony Pal™ William in Houston for the spotting!

On a related topic, my burning question is this: will Hillary use the DoS matching armchairs? Stay tuned!

Yeah, I got bored at work today and watched the entire 24 minute video of Hillary's arrival that State Department bloggers had put up. That was definitely an unusually happy crowd. Condi must've really, really been loathed.

I hope the matching armchairs stay, myself. Now that we have someone who thinks with something other than what she sits on, it'd be a refreshing change to have MACPOs be an aesthetic background to something other than abject failure.

No, Frank, she was only the Good Witch of the North in the movie. In L. Frank Baum's original books, Glinda the Good was the Witch of the South. So whether he meant to or not, Mr. Horton got it right. We discuss this at length over at My Cats Are Democrats.

Check this on the State Department reaction. Was going to shout out the Dead Men Working post about the disappearance of the Great Wall Of Bush, but the Diplopundit post has the advantage of more insider snark.

You made me think of Margaret Hamilton, one of my favorite actresses. I found a youtube vid of her appearing on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, apologizing to the kiddies for scaring them with the wicked witch, and talking a little about the experience she had filming the movie. It was actually very sweet, and kind of cool seeing her as the little grandmother she was by '68, getting into costume and doing that character again for a second. I'm not going to link, but if you're curious, it should be easy to find.